In any sort of construction work in which the earth is perturbed by any great amount, such as excavation for building foundations or altering topological grades, control methods are required to prevent erosion of the silt and soil such as caused by heavy rainfall. These control methods are particularly important to the building and road construction industry and generally involve the use of a barrier in the form of a silt fence to address the problems of silt, soil and sand run off.
In order to install the silt fence, it is necessary to cut a narrow trench at the excavation site. After the silt fence is manually positioned in the furrow, the berm of the displaced soil left by the trenching operation must be filled back into the furrow to sustain the position of the silt fence.
Presently available trenching machines are generally larger and more expensive than desired for a narrow trenching job. In addition, such machines are often difficult to maneuver and their digging depth is difficult to control. As a result, trenching operations required for positioning of the silt fence may often require more manual labor than is desired.
It is the general aim of the present invention to provide a relatively simple, easily transportable trenching attachment which may be readily attached to various sizes of an existing tool, such as an earth moving bucket, located on the front end of a construction vehicle such as a skid steer vehicle or front end loader. It is further desirable to provide a trenching attachment which may be operated at any location on an excavation site and will consistently form a furrow in the range of 4-7 inches deep. It is also within the purview of this invention to provide a trenching device which may be readily removed from the bucket in order to efficiently backfill the furrow and sustain the silt fence in place.